The first thing that stands out when entering the Land O’FROST facility in Lancing, Illinois is the work speed. From the station, there are workers who pack up forklifts, packed palettes, Delhi meat and hot dog boxes. Eventually, you can’t pack and deliver 128,000 pounds of meat every day.
The second thing that stands out is how humans and machines work side by side. All stages of the packaging process are designed to maximize the unique strengths of manual and automation. Employees are very knowledge and very kind.
Frank Mejia, a continuous improvement officer, says: “Automation means helping employees enjoy better work life.”
Business based on innovation
Land O’FROST was founded in 1941 as a refrigeration storage project (thus name), but has been expanded to cover Delhi meat, sausage and premium hot dogs. The company, which started in southern Chicago, has grown into a third generation family owner, holding various brands and holding more than 1,500 employees. The founder, Antoon Van Eekeren, came to the United States with $ 25 in his pocket, and his son Paul Van Eekeren designed some machines of the Land O’Frost facility.
Their operation is a precise adjusted machine, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Land O’FROST has the history of innovation that began in 1975 when Paul Van Eekeren designed manufacturing machines that made production more dynamic, reduced labor costs and improved food safety. In 2016, we started a journey to increase factory productivity by building collective and collaborative personnel with Rin manufacturing with Redzone. Automation was the last missing part of increasing production efficiency.
Over the years, continuous improvement engineers, such as Frank Mejia, have found repeated work to automate. Interest in detail and steady concentration on gradual improvements are how Land O’Frost continues to maintain success. In other words, the proverb ‘sausage is made’.
The desire for automation due to the desire for improving working conditions and the lack of labor force
Frank surveyed all stages of production and packaging process to find repetitive and automated stages in the facility.
Frank began to focus on Paletijing because of the repetitive and burdensome characteristics of the construction of the box. He had the opportunity to assign human resources elsewhere, reduce OPEX spending, and improve everyday working conditions.
Another problem with the manual Palethinging process was that it was difficult to replace the product due to lack of employee and turnover. Land O’FROST operates a variety of SKUs. In other words, there was a new palette pattern whenever the product changed. This was a big task for Land O’Frost. Whenever a staff replacement occurred, we had to educate a new line worker for each palette pattern. This was a big burden on field workers and increased education requirements.
Improving operational efficiency with a Palething robot
The packaging line of the Land O’FROST facility before automation.
The main requirements for the functional Paletijing cells of the Land O’FROST production line are as follows.
- The ability to fit the limited space at the end of the line (approximately 9×9 available space)
- The ability to build up to 12 movements per minute
- Easy to convert education and products
This improved effort led Frank and Land. Offrost To Pomic. Formic currently designs, places, and maintains five gantry style Paletiding robots in the facility. The robot can run up to 12 pickups per minute, and has already accumulated more than 60,000 boxes. Formic trained land Offrost Since the line worker operates the system, the staff who built the box have become a robot worker.
Frank had never worked with the “AS-A-Service” company before, but Frank said: “It is not familiar to us to make someone in charge of maintenance, but it’s definitely one of the key points for us. Since the formic is maintained, the device’s stopping time is very minimized. ”
In just two weeks of distributing five gantry style Palething System, Land O’Frost operated all related SKUs and palette patterns, and field workers were fully trained for automated equipment. The worker who built a box has now become a robot worker.
Automation not only simplifies transitions and promotes manpower relocation, but Land O’FROST reduces labor costs by 20% every day. Perhaps the most important thing is that Frank no longer needs to worry about Palething, and you can focus time and attention to improving other facilities.
When the Land O’frost box descends to the production line and the operator presses the button, the formic robot processes the rest of the work, and the palette is completely stacked and prepared.
Four out of five Formic cells working hard in Land O’FROST facilities.
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